CELTICS TOP CAVS IN SHAQ’S CLEVELAND DEBUT

In a potential NBA Eastern Conference Final preview, the Boston Celtics struck the first blow with a 95-89 season opening road victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Paul Pierce’s ‘double/double’ of 23 points and 11 boards led the way for the Celtics, while the Cavs’ LeBron James answered with 38 points in a losing cause.  It was the Cleveland debut of Shaquille O’Neal, and “The Big Aristotle” contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Celtics also took the money against the NBA pointspread winning outright as +5 road underdogs.  Boston held a six point lead at halftime, and did a good job holding off Cleveland the rest of the way to maintain that advantage.  The 184 combined points just managed to go OVER the posted total of 183’.  

In addition to Pierce’s 23 points, Ray Allen added 16 and Kevin Garnett 13 in the victory.  Afterwards, Pierce said that the season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for the Celtics:

"It was a good Day One. Psychologically, you want to go into a team's building and win, especially in a place where we haven't won in a few years. It's great to come here and get a win. We know when we come here next time that we can do it again."

"We just carry on, handle our business and understand we have one goal in mind. We really don't care what people say about us. We know what our goal is."

Shaquille O’Neal maintained that the loss didn’t discourage him or his teammates in the least:

"We'd like to start off 1-0, but there are 100 games left. We'll be fine. I've been on teams that started 0-1, 0-5, 5-0, 10-0. Nothing matters unless you win the whole thing. You can't win a championship in the first game.”

LeBron James was very gracious in defeat:

"Boston is a great team. I think we can all say that we probably will see each other in the postseason. We will be around."

Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers returned the praise as he commended the Cavs:

"They're going to be great. Shaq's a great player and LeBron, if he's not the best, he's 1A. I've heard a lot of talk about Shaq clogging up stuff, but you can't leave Shaq so it's going to actually open it up more for LeBron. They're going to be a tough basketball team."

The Celtics will return home for the rest of the week, with games against Charlotte, Chicago and New Orleans.  They’ll play their next road game on Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.   The Cavs face a quick road trip with stops in Toronto and Minnesota before they return home for games against Charlotte and Washington